Easily done - there was a lot to read through. The Linux PC does have ethernet, but I have nothing to connect it to.

Re: The Kernel being old, yes, I had wondered if I could update to a later Kernel since the Ralink support seems to have improved just after the one I'm using (2.6.32). This is the version of Debian 6 from the LXF coverdisc just a few weeks ago, so I can't imagine when that image was made if the Kernel is so many versions ahead already.

However, I had no idea how to get a later version of the Kernel until I read your detailed instructions, which I appreciate your having posted. Unfortunately, I can not carry them out until I can somehow get the machine to a wired internet connection.

Not sure that will help you much, other than to confirm that the device is the one I said it was.

I'm coming to the conclusion that my version of Debian (which I thought was quite new) is not new enough to support my particular card, and the only other card I have is a Netgear WG311v2, which Linux also does not recognise - I gather the Texas (ti) chipset used by that card is also not well supported on Linux.

So I'm taking two other approaches to this - one being to order an Atheros- based card which several online reviewers have said 'just works' with Linux - it's cheap, so it won't be a disaster if it doesn't work.

The other thing I've done is to order a new Debian install disc from one of the official Debian suppliers - I'm hoping that the new disc will have a newer version of the Kernel on it, and that may well get the original Edimax card working after all.

In the meantime I will also try, if possible, to get the machine to a wired connection to try updating the Kernel as El Chapulin kindly described, as it seems to be a good thing for me to know how to do.

Last edited by SiriusHardware on Tue Oct 02, 2012 6:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Not sure that will help you much, other than to confirm that the device is the one I said it was.

I'm coming to the conclusion that my version of Debian (which I thought was quite new) is not new enough to support my particular card,

It also confirms that you have no driver installed for the device, lspci -v shows the driver the kernel is using (or trying to use) for the device. This is consistent with your kernel not having support for the device due to its age.

Debian has a reputation for using tried and tested software, rather than the latest bleeding edge, which is why a new release includes a not so new kernel.

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." (Albert Einstein)

Thanks for continuing to help: Over the weekend, I tried something radically different: I Installed Linux Mint 13 from the LXF discs to see if that might happen to have a later Kernel. It did - 3.2.0.23 (If I remember correctly).

LM13 acquired the Ralink 3060 based card correctly as it installed and gave every appearance of connecting to my router and staying connected, but no internet activity was possible. It was as though the encryption was not correct (my router uses WPA2-PSK). I don't use MAC filtering on the router, so all I had to do was get the passphrase correct. (I did).

Although Mint looks like a very nice version of Linux, I really would prefer to try to get Debian working because that is the most similar to the Linux I have running on my Raspberry Pi. (On the Pi, I have 'Raspbian', which is a slightly Pi-optimised Debian rebuild (or so I understand). The PC I'm using for Linux is quite old, (circa 2005) so it makes sense to use a lighter weight distro on it anyway.

I'll reinstall Debian again and try your offline method of updating the Kernel. It'll take me a little while to do all that, but I'll report back when I've done it.

I'm afraid this one proved to be a problem. The other packages seemed to install or update OK (some I had already, to a greater or lesser extent), but when it got to the kernel update package it fell apart because it seemed to conflict with some packages which needed to be removed in order to go ahead: But on the other hand Linux didn't want to remove them because key aspects of Linux (like the ability to boot) depended upon them.

I tried using a package manager to install the above package, and from that at least the message was simpler: It couldn't install the package above:

Error: Dependency is not satisfiable: Linux-base (>= 3~)

What this sounds like to me is that I can't install that version of the Kernel unless I'm already running a V3 kernel. So how to get from V2 to any version of V3? No idea.

As I said in an earlier post, I have another Debian install disc on the way to me - with any luck it may have a marginally newer kernel version. I'll try that next, when it arrives (any day now).

Also be aware that Debian Wheezy (Debian 7) is still in testing, but currently frozen, it should release early next year (perhaps sooner). You could just jump straight to wheezy, get a much newer kernel by default and newer software. Be aware though that testing can be buggy (but no more so than 'buntu or mint).

SiriusHardware wrote:Although Mint looks like a very nice version of Linux, I really would prefer to try to get Debian working because that is the most similar to the Linux I have running on my Raspberry Pi. (On the Pi, I have 'Raspbian', which is a slightly Pi-optimised Debian rebuild (or so I understand).

You could try Lubuntu. It is based on Debian, but will use a newer kernel, and it uses the same LXDE desktop as Raspbian.

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." (Albert Einstein)